Best Peter Van Valkenburgh Podcasts (2024)

1
Reindustrializing America w/ Austin Bishop & Jon Askonas 1:09:36

3d ago1:09:36

1:09:36

It’s time for American industry’s Lazarus moment. At least, that’s what a growing coalition of contrarian builders, investors, technologists, and policymakers have asserted over the past several years. American might was built on our industrial base. As scholars like Arthur Herman detail in Freedom’s Forge, the United States won World War 2 with in…

1
‘Aave v4 Will Unify Cross-Chain Liquidity’ - Stani Kulechov 1:10:48

8d ago1:10:48

1:10:48

One of the bluechip DeFi projects and backbone of Ethereum liquidity markets, Aave has recently announced their V4 upgrade proposal, which aims (among others) to unify crosschain liquidity. We were joined by Stani Kulechov, founder & CEO of Aave, to discuss the DeFi (r)evolution since ETH Lend to Aave V4, expanding to non-EVM chains and potentially…

1
Hard Tech on the Space Coast w/ Andrew Côté & Jon Askonas 1:00:37

10d ago1:00:37

1:00:37

For this special edition episode, FAI Senior Fellow Jon Askonas flew down to Palm Bay, FL to mix and mingle with the brightest minds in aerospace, manufacturing, and defense at the Space Coast Hard Tech Hackathon, organized by stealth founder Spencer Macdonald (also an FAI advisor). Jon sits down with a friend of the show and Hyperstition founder A…

1
Fabric Ventures' Investment Thesis Since the Dawn of Bitcoin to AI - Richard Muirhead 1:09:24

15d ago1:09:24

1:09:24

It is one thing to invest in early stage companies, but to do so in a nascent industry that constantly reinvents and rediscovers itself is a whole different venture. Richard Muirhead co-founded Fabric Ventures in 2012 around the thesis of supporting the Open Economy. While at first this meant investing in Bitcoin-related projects, once Ethereum was…

1
How the Valley Turned Silicon into Gold and Power w/ Rob Lalka 55:13

17d ago55:13

55:13

Silicon Valley was once idolized for creating innovations that seemed like modern miracles. But the reputations of tech entrepreneurs have been trending downward of late, as Big Tech companies are blamed for any number of societal ills, from violating users’ privacy and eroding teenagers’ mental health, to spreading misinformation and undermining d…

1
Plurality: How Taiwan Managed to Unite Its People Through Tech - Audrey Tang & Glen Weyl 1:01:32

22d ago1:01:32

1:01:32

In a world constantly torn by social division amplified by polarizing scissor statements throughout social media, Taiwan conducted a social experiment aimed at strengthening social unity while also embracing diversity. Plurality details how Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang and her collaborators achieved inclusive, technology-fueled growth that…

1
Is Big Tech Co-Opting Startups? w/ Adam Rogers 53:28

24d ago53:28

53:28

This is how many assume the tech economy is supposed to work. Big, established companies are at risk of getting disrupted as they get set in their ways; the internal bureaucracies grow too large and they lose their nimbleness and take fewer risks. The pressure from upstarts forces larger firms to innovate – otherwise, they lose market share and may…

1
'Ethereum Needs Polygon's Aggregation Layer to Scale' - Brendan Farmer & Sandeep Nailwal 1:05:56

29d ago1:05:56

1:05:56

As more and more L2s launch promising to scale Ethereum, they end up competing for the same market share, userbase and liquidity. Apart from this harsh reality, crosschain interactions should be as seamless as possible in order to bridge different L2 ecosystems. Polygon envisions a scalable future in which various zero knowledge rollups post their …

1
Tornado (Cash) Warning w/ Peter Van Valkenburgh 1:01:29

1M ago1:01:29

1:01:29

Tornado Cash is a decentralized cryptocurrency mixing service built on Ethereum. Its open-source protocol allows users to obscure the trail of their cryptocurrency transactions by pooling funds together, making it difficult to trace the origin and destination of any given transfer. In August 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department took the unprecedented…

1
EthStaker: Ethereum Staking Wars - Nixorokish & Superphiz 1:02:09

1M ago1:02:09

1:02:09

In a world where a handful of (centralised) entities hold the majority of staked Ethereum (either directly or via delegation), the network’s decentralisation and security might be in peril. While there are multiple proposals being discussed to address this pressing matter, from reducing issuance after a certain breakpoint (~30% of total ETH being s…

1
Is America’s ‘Free-Market’ a Myth? w/Rob Atkinson 54:05

1M ago54:05

54:05

Social media undermines democracy. Small businesses are more innovative than big ones. Corporate profits are at all-time highs. America’s secret weapon is laissez-faire capitalism. These are widely held beliefs, but are they true? Our guest today argues that these statements aren’t just wrong, but that they’re holding America back—discouraging tale…

1
PsyDAO: Decentralising Psychedelic Research - Dima Buterin & Paul Kohlhaas 1:21:46

1M ago1:21:46

1:21:46

One could argue that psychedelic research has experienced a similar journey as crypto, in the sense that decentralised communities bound together to fund research where centralised entities refuse to do so. One of the greatest hurdles in modern science is access to research funding, and DeSci aims to provide a solution through decentralised crowdfu…

1
Can We Be Ready for the Next Pandemic? w/ Swati Sureka 43:01

1M ago43:01

43:01

Is American ready for the next pandemic? The answer is a resounding “no,” according to a recent Washington Post editorial. When the U.S. was caught flat-footed and unprepared to deal with COVID-19, many lawmakers vowed to address pandemic preparedness. Yet, according to many experts, these efforts are inadequate and interest among lawmakers in prep…

1
Crypto ETFs: Trojan Horse or Big Win? - Austin Griffith, Mona El Isa, Peter Van Valkenburgh 1:12:29

2M ago1:12:29

1:12:29

The approval of Ethereum spot ETFs sent shockwaves through the industry as policymakers pivoted abruptly from threatening to veto FIT21 bill, to a pro-crypto discourse. One could say their hand was forced by the imminent US elections, but Ethereum is now officially classified as a commodity, nonetheless. As the regulatory hurdle seems, for the time…

1
California Comes for AI w/ Brian Chau & Dean Ball 59:46

2M ago59:46

59:46

When it comes to AI regulation, states are moving faster than the federal government. While California is the hub of American AI innovation (Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta are all headquartered in the Valley), the state is also poised to enact some of the strictest state regulations on frontier AI development. Introduced on February 8, the Saf…

1
Alluvial: Institutional Liquid Staking and Spot Ethereum ETF - Mara Schmiedt 52:41

2M ago52:41

52:41

The massive success of the recently approved spot Bitcoin ETF showed tremendous interest from large institutional players. Even despite negative takes in public appearances, behind the curtain, more and more ‘smart money’ accumulate $BTC, either directly or through ETF shares. The same is to be expected for Ethereum, yet uncertainty still looms due…

1
How to Win the New Cold War w/ Michael Sobolik 57:10

2M ago57:10

57:10

Is America in a new Cold War with China? If so, who is winning? One of the defining features of the 21st century has been the intensifying competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. As the two superpowers jockey for global influence, China threatens to dislodge America’s longstanding role atop the international order. At…

1
LIVE: Beff Jezos, Andrew Côté, & Sam Hammond on the Future of AI 59:08

2M ago59:08

59:08

Should we accelerate into the AI future or proceed with caution? Do we even have a choice? From deep-tech disruptors to policymaking under time pressure, a battle over the fate of human civilization is now being waged on multiple fronts: Closed vs. Open, Hardware vs. Software, Safety vs. Ethics: in sum, Order vs. Chaos. Foundation for American Inn…

1
Quadratic Funding and How Gitcoin Raised $60M for Public Goods - Kevin Owocki 48:43

2M ago48:43

48:43

5 years, 20 Grants, 3715 projects crowd-funded and over $60M raised towards public goods funding, from 4.2M unique donations. Gitcoin’s headline numbers are indicative of the massive success their quadratic funding (QF) and public goods funding models (PGF) have seen over the years. With Gitcoin 2.0, crowd-funding is further decentralised, Allo Pro…

1
The Internet of Things is Less Secure Than You Think w/FCC Commissioner Simington 1:05:27

2M ago1:05:27

1:05:27

The number of internet-connected devices in the world has skyrocketed. According to one estimate, there are currently 17 billion connected devices in the world. This doesn’t just include well known electronics like laptops and smartphones. These devices span every sector of the global economy—from agriculture and manufacturing to healthcare and sci…

1
Near Protocol: 'Blockchains Cannot Scale Without Sharding!' - Illia Polosukhin & Alex Skidanov 1:45:33

2M ago1:45:33

1:45:33

The initial scaling roadmap for Ethereum featured execution layer sharding. However, the rapid advancements of layer 2 scaling solutions in general, and zero knowledge proofs in particular, caused a restructuring of the original plan. The reason was that rollups would have required less changes made to Ethereum’s base layer, hence lower risks. On t…

1
Debate: Should TikTok Divest or Face a Ban? 1:02:16

3M ago1:02:16

1:02:16

This week, President Biden signed into law a bill that would require TikTok to divest itself from Chinese parent company ByteDance or else face a ban in the United States. The legislation was part of a package of bills that included foreign aid to Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine. Over the past few years, TikTok has exploded in popularity. Today over 17…

1
'Is Tether's USDT Safe?' - Paolo Ardoino 1:27:32

3M ago1:27:32

1:27:32

Long regarded as an impending black swan, Tether has successfully weathered out the contagion and bank runs caused by Luna’s collapse in the depths of the 2022-2023 bearmarket. Since then, a large portion of Tether’s reserves has been shifted to treasury bills, which are the closest dollar proxy, positioning Tether among the top 20 holders of T-bil…

1
Safe: Securing $100 Billion of Crypto Assets - Lukas Schor 1:06:24

3M ago1:06:24

1:06:24

What started out as a plan to build prediction markets, Gnosis ended up building crucial Ethereum infrastructure and tooling. Safe is one of its many successes, which originated during the 2017 ICO mania, as a solution for managing the raised capital securely, via a multi-sig. Even back then, the multi-sig model was quickly adopted by the entire in…

1
Saga: 'Ethereum and Solana CAN NOT Scale. Our Chainlets Fix This!' - Rebecca Liao 52:10

3M ago52:10

52:10

One of the most important hurdles to mass adoption is represented by blockchain scalability, which also hinders the real-life utility of its numerous applications. While there are different solutions being experimented with, one should not overlook the importance of security and decentralisation. Saga introduces the concept of chainlets, interopera…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Peter Van Valkenburgh Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

1
Tangents from Coin Center

Jerry Brito, Peter Van Valkenburgh, Neeraj Agrawal, Robin Weisman

1
The Dynamist

Foundation for American Innovation

1
Epicenter - Learn about Crypto, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Distributed Technologies

Epicenter Media Ltd.

101
UpOnly: Chats with Crypto Experts

Brian Krogsgard, Jordan Fish

1
Reindustrializing America w/ Austin Bishop & Jon Askonas 1:09:36

1
‘Aave v4 Will Unify Cross-Chain Liquidity’ - Stani Kulechov 1:10:48

1
Hard Tech on the Space Coast w/ Andrew Côté & Jon Askonas 1:00:37

1
Fabric Ventures' Investment Thesis Since the Dawn of Bitcoin to AI - Richard Muirhead 1:09:24

1
How the Valley Turned Silicon into Gold and Power w/ Rob Lalka 55:13

1
Plurality: How Taiwan Managed to Unite Its People Through Tech - Audrey Tang & Glen Weyl 1:01:32

1
Is Big Tech Co-Opting Startups? w/ Adam Rogers 53:28

1
'Ethereum Needs Polygon's Aggregation Layer to Scale' - Brendan Farmer & Sandeep Nailwal 1:05:56

1
Tornado (Cash) Warning w/ Peter Van Valkenburgh 1:01:29

1
EthStaker: Ethereum Staking Wars - Nixorokish & Superphiz 1:02:09

1
Is America’s ‘Free-Market’ a Myth? w/Rob Atkinson 54:05

1
PsyDAO: Decentralising Psychedelic Research - Dima Buterin & Paul Kohlhaas 1:21:46

1
Can We Be Ready for the Next Pandemic? w/ Swati Sureka 43:01

1
Crypto ETFs: Trojan Horse or Big Win? - Austin Griffith, Mona El Isa, Peter Van Valkenburgh 1:12:29

1
California Comes for AI w/ Brian Chau & Dean Ball 59:46

1
Alluvial: Institutional Liquid Staking and Spot Ethereum ETF - Mara Schmiedt 52:41

1
How to Win the New Cold War w/ Michael Sobolik 57:10

1
LIVE: Beff Jezos, Andrew Côté, & Sam Hammond on the Future of AI 59:08

1
Quadratic Funding and How Gitcoin Raised $60M for Public Goods - Kevin Owocki 48:43

1
The Internet of Things is Less Secure Than You Think w/FCC Commissioner Simington 1:05:27

1
Near Protocol: 'Blockchains Cannot Scale Without Sharding!' - Illia Polosukhin & Alex Skidanov 1:45:33

1
Debate: Should TikTok Divest or Face a Ban? 1:02:16

1
'Is Tether's USDT Safe?' - Paolo Ardoino 1:27:32

1
Safe: Securing $100 Billion of Crypto Assets - Lukas Schor 1:06:24

1
Saga: 'Ethereum and Solana CAN NOT Scale. Our Chainlets Fix This!' - Rebecca Liao 52:10

Quick Reference Guide